The discovery of
chronic wasting disease in a Wisconsin deer in 2002 triggered stringent state
requirements that also applied to elk. Many consumers worried about venison and
elk meat being infected with the disease.

But elk are not the
problem, Susen said.

One elk in the state
has been found to have CWD, compared to 33 deer, according to Donna Gilson, a
spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.

³We havenıt made any
secret of the fact that this is a whitetail deer (problem),² Gilson said.

Still, elk farmers and
deer farmers alike were hit hard.

³It has crippled the
industry, but it certainly didnıt shut us down,² said Susen, who raises about 46
elk on her town of Farmington farm.

Sales decreased after
CWD was found in Wisconsin, but she has rebounded nicely. Meadowcreekıs sales
have increased 25 percent each year since, she said.

Her secret to the
comeback was teaching the public about elk products.

³Itıs education and
weıre involved in promotional activities,² she said. ³I think thereıs a growing
interest in consumers in knowing where their food is coming from.² Studies have
not proven meat from an animal infected with CWD can harm humans, both Gilson
and Susen said.

³The World Health
Organization, after examining the science behind it, has said there is no
evidence that chronic wasting disease is passed to humans through eating,²
Gilson said. ³Thereıs less panic than there was. There was so much fear all the
way around when this was first reported.² Susen said she is confident in the
safety of elk meat, and has testified to the state Legislature about CWD.

³I wouldnıt be in the
business (if there was a problem). Iıd be out of the business,² she said.

The bigger concern may
be economic.

³(The hunting
industry) is huge. So if our whitetail herd comes down with CWD and disappears,
itıs a huge economic impact,² Susen said. ³Itıs something thatıs out there. I am
concerned because I wouldnıt want the disease to spread in the wild herds. Iım
very confident itıs not in the farms.² There is no cure for chronic wasting
disease, which causes deer and elk to become thin, act abnormal and die.

For farmers, the
difficulty has been dealing with the backlash of CWD fears, both consumer
perception of the farms and increased regulations.

³The fears are
primarily economic because they have born the economic brunt of this disease,²
Gilson said.

After the discovery of
CWD, all farms were required to test every deer or elk slaughtered for the
disease. Because it is found in the brain, animals cannot be tested until death.
Farms also were required to tag all their animals, something many elk farmers
were already doing voluntarily for business reasons, Susen said.

Many deer farmers,
however, had a tougher time tagging their animals.

³How are they going to
get an ear tag on those guys?² Susen said of white-tailed deer, which tend to be
more skittish than elk. ³The reason people have gone out of the business is
because they canıt handle the regulations.² Joel Espe, president of the
Wisconsin Commercial Deer and Elk Farmers Association, said some farms that had
annual sales of more than $500,000 shut down and moved to where the regulatory
climate was more friendly.

We still have a
viable deer and elk industry in the state,ıı said Espe, who raises 25 elk on a
farm near Monticello, south of Madison.

According to Gilson,
about 700 farms are still licensed in Wisconsin, not much less than the
estimated 700 to 800 elk and deer farms in the state when CWD was discovered.
Still, those farms contain thousands fewer animals than were believed to be in
Wisconsin before CWD was detected.

Espe said game farms
were once blamed as the source of the disease in the wild herd.

I think we have been
vindicated,ıı he said. Look inside the fences and you are not seeing the
disease.ıı

(The Associated Press
contributed to this report.)

Chronic wasting
disease and its impact on Wisconsin farms

WHATıS NEW: Four
years after chronic wasting disease was discovered in deer in Wisconsin, the
state still has nearly 700 licensed deer and elk farms, but they contain
thousands fewer animals than in the years before chronic wasting disease was
discovered.

THE DISEASE: Chronic
wasting disease is fatal, causing deer and elk to grow thin, act abnormal and
die. There have been no studies proving that eating meat infected with CWD is
detrimental to humans.

THE NUMBERS: Of the
13,000 farm-raised deer or elk that have been tested for the disease, 34 tested
positive for it. Of those positive tests, 33 were deer and one was an elk.